"New Horizons" Was The Orville Seth MacFarlane Always Wanted

When you step back and then write your dialogue, you can write different characters with equal conviction, because there really isn’t a clear answer to the problem. An episode like “Twice in a Lifetime”, which is a completely fictitious conundrum that would never happen, is a good example of that, because we created an utterly-imaginary moral dilemma that we then had to contend with. To me, those are the scripts that are the most fun to write, the ones where I’m prevented from being preachy by the very structure of what we’ve set up.

If I may go on record, I will say that I don’t think I can ever forgive Mercer and Grayson for what they did to Malloy in “Twice in a Lifetime.” I just want Gordon to be happy at this point. 

(Laughs) Here’s the interesting thing about that. You saw the life that he had, but you didn’t see the life that she would have had. That’s the thing that I haven’t seen commented on enough, is that the life that Gordon had with [Laura] was no more real than the life that she probably had in the prior timeline with this other guy. That and the kids that Laura had, were probably just as real as Gordon’s timeline. So it’s all about perception. We’re more attached to Gordon because we know him, and it’s a lot easier to sympathize with someone we know than with a complete stranger.

Excellent point. Speaking of possible futures, Mercer took a bit of a step back this season, perhaps because you were directing more often. This has created some concern within The Orville community that since you’re such an insanely busy individual, and you’re currently producing several projects right now, that you may have to focus on other projects. If The Orville could continue indefinitely, but it sadly meant that you couldn’t be a part of it, would you make that sacrifice for the show?

I mean, that’s a tough one. I don’t quite know how that would work. I look at the stories that Mercer had this season, [episodes] like “Gently Falling Rain”, which is a pretty intense story for him, and certainly in “Midnight Blue”, there were a handful of moments for Ed that were significant, but I’ve always seen this show as an ensemble piece. If a story itself suggests that it needs to put the focus on any one of our nine characters, that’s the character that has to carry that episode. There’s no math to it. I don’t go into it making sure that Ed has a certain amount of screen time, or Kelly has a certain amount of screen time. It just kind of shakes out that way. 

That’s one of the things I love about an ensemble show. It just so happened to turn out that Ed was a little light this year. He was almost put in this “F.D.R. position” where he was sitting back and putting his team and their respective expertise in the right place at the right time to get a certain mission completed. 

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